


Windsor

by paradisecity



Category: House M.D.
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-04-14
Updated: 2005-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-10 14:36:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradisecity/pseuds/paradisecity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A history told in ties.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Windsor

It all started with the burgundy and cream, so different from the droll blues that were Wilson's standard. It was cheerful, playful, almost coyly romantic. When House realized he was ascribing such description to an inanimate object, likely of exorbitant cost for something of its sort, he thought that perhaps getting out into the clinic with other people might do him some good.

He knew then that something was very wrong.

His suspicions were confirmed when he looked up to see Wilson loitering nervously in his office door at a quarter to five, all but scuffing his feet on the ground.

"What?" House asked, rather more gruffly than he intended. He didn't think men should be distracted by someone's chest unless said someone had an incredibly stunning rack, which Wilson clearly did not.

"Er," Wilson began, uncharacteristically hesitant. "I was hoping you could give me a lift home."

"Do I want to know why you're vehicularly indisposed? Probably not," House mused to himself. "It's certainly nothing as juicy as having been used in a crime or as a getaway car. More likely something as mundane as a paint job." He sighed. "All right, let's go. Wouldn't want Melissa thinking I'd left you to the mean streets of New Jersey."

Wilson shook his head. "I was thinking more like back to your place, actually."

"Dr. Wilson, are you propositioning me? I do believe that's sexual harassment. I'm not sure, of course, given that I missed all of the eighty-seven required seminars on the subject, but I have a sneaking suspicion it might be."

Wilson, still refusing to be baited to a smile, blew out a long breath and looked up at him. "No, I -- I'm getting a divorce."

In that moment, the burgundy and cream became House's favorite.

\--------

Many of Wilson's things did not make the move with him, for reasons best left unmentioned. As he replaced his possessions and settled into his new space with House, it gave House a chance to differentiate between Melissa's Wilson and Wilson on his own. They were two very different people and House found himself wondering how the second had ever become the first.

Wilson on his own spoke differently, more freely and with more humor. He moved differently, more widely and expressively without someone smaller to be aware of and protect. He even smiled differently, more easily and without guilt and it was then that House realized he hadn't ever seen Wilson smile properly before.

He also did interesting things when left to his own devices. He bought the kind of cereal that turned milk unnatural colors; he played Wheel of Fortune against the contestants on TV; he sang in the shower something that sounded a little like Janet Jackson.

One thing Wilson didn't do when left to his own devices, however, was shop. That was how he ended up being down to his old ties, the ones his mother and first wife had bought for him that Melissa had later outlawed. That meant, pleasingly enough, the end of the dull, stuffy blue ties with their sharp, clean lines. Instead, they were now in warmer colors with patterns, overlapping and intermingling, heedless of space, boundaries, and the need to keep things separate. Everything about Wilson was more accessible, even down to the smallest detail.

House had never been a man of great restraint. He always wanted to know how far he could push things and exactly why he couldn't push them any further than that. A boundary untested wasn't a boundary worth standing and the more time he spent with Wilson, the more he wanted to test. It would have been so easy and truthfully, he didn't think Wilson would really mind.

Luckily for House, he was far too smart to touch someone who couldn't even keep their ties from becoming such a mixed-up mess.

\--------

The thing about Wilson, though, was that he was horribly predictable. He also had a frightening lack of imagination, something House lamented daily in the face of his shattered dreams of world domination. When he first met Wilson, he thought he'd finally found someone to stand by his side as he became evil overlord of the hospital, raining sarcasm and mockery down upon the ignorant masses. They'd keep their servants in obedient line with the threat of unleashing their wrath in soon-to-be-legendary prank form. He had the grandest of plans for staff, administrators, and patients alike; all he needed was a sidekick, a co-conspirator, someone to play flight 305 to his D.B. Cooper. Unfortunately, Wilson couldn't even step out from behind a door and say boo properly, thus ending House's domination fantasies. It was something House never entirely forgave him for.

Predictable and unimaginative: two very Wilsonian characteristics. It was something House kept in mind while looking at Wilson's third red and gold patterned tie in as many days. And while he was proud of Wilson for making the bold move to a power color, this, he finally understood, was why Wilson needed to be married. It wasn't that he couldn't dress himself because he could, properly if plainly; it was just that he didn't pay attention. House would lay good money down that Wilson had spied the first tie, thought it nice, and bought it thrice over without realizing he already owned its first degree relative. And he'd tied his half Windsor every morning for the last three mornings without noticing that today's tie was nearly identical to the one from the day before and the day before that. Wilson was oblivious by default and for someone as attuned to nuance as House, it was unendingly irksome.

He began identifying red and gold patterned tie moments in their routines: the mornings when they tag teamed the crossword and passed coffee accoutrements knowingly and unerringly; the evenings after work when they watched the eleven o'clock news together before going to bed separately; the weekends spent with buxom B-movie heroine after buxom B-movie heroine. Once identified, he became curt and churlish during those moments and, increasingly, others. When Wilson called him on it with a smile gone soft and hurt around the edges, House had nothing to say because "I'm not a red and gold tie" was neither an excuse nor an explanation Wilson would understand.

Instead, with vicious satisfaction, House threw them out with the garbage and told Wilson they'd been lost at the drycleaner's.

\--------

House had never seen Wilson try to impress anyone; by the time they'd met, Wilson was already on his second marriage and firmly in line for the head of oncology position. Furthermore, he'd always had a natural charm that meant he was usually able to get what he wanted without any sort of concerted effort. That's why the yellow tie was such a surprise.

It took House an embarrassing amount of time to figure out what the tie was about because every time he looked at it he was assaulted with the sort of annoyingly bright cheer that made it difficult to think. Clearly Wilson was making a sartorial statement but what the exact nature of that statement was, House couldn't discern. Damnable yellow.

It wasn't until he saw the leggy brunette waiting outside Wilson's office that he understood. The tie wasn't an attempt at fashion gone horribly awry nor an homage to daffodils, rubber ducks, or lemonade; it was merely a way of getting someone's attention so Wilson's charm and luck could do the rest of the work. And it did.

Her name was Julie, she was an antiques appraiser, and House didn't have to meet her to know he wasn't going to like her.

\--------

There was, House had come to find, a vast difference between single Wilson and married Wilson. Single Wilson was affable, outgoing, fun. Married Wilson was serious, quiet, and boring. Gone were after work dinners and drinks, late night reruns spent analyzing the true nature of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship, and weekend monster truck rallies. Instead, Wilson was trying to get home to his wife, at home with his wife, or out with his wife. And given that Julie wasn't overly fond of House nor House overly fond of Julie, there was precious little time for him in Wilson's new, married world.

He'd have felt guilty for begrudging his friend marital bliss but married Wilson wasn't his friend. He was a colleague, an acquaintance, someone from House's past; there were many titles for Wilson now, but friend was not among them. House began to miss having an appreciative audience with whom to share his brilliance and his pithy one liners. He started to think about bothering Cuddy for a staff, even though he knew she'd laugh and take great pleasure in denying him. He also knew she'd give in eventually if he harassed her enough and actually took on a case or two, but his loneliness wasn't so great that he was willing to sacrifice his pride just yet.

The next week, Julie went out of town and Wilson gave House the great honor of a quick cafeteria lunch. Conversation was stilted and awkward because Wilson didn't know much about House anymore and House didn't want to know much about Julie. Somewhere in the middle of Wilson's description of their last dinner party, House noticed the tie Wilson was wearing looked almost exactly like the one he'd been wearing when they'd met. It was as close to being the same as it could be while having been bought by different wives and the similarity made House nauseous.

He called in sick to work the next day. The day after that, he asked Cuddy for a staff.

\--------

The second time, House could see it coming. He'd missed the signs the first time around, but this time he knew what to look for. First, Wilson started coming around the office more. Though he said it was for the slinky, having gone so far to shore up his story as to hide it when he found Chase playing with it one afternoon, Wilson was there for the company and they both knew it. Then the dinners and drinks after work started again, as Wilson had developed an aversion to his own home and House was more than happy to play enabler. He did so well enough, in fact, that extending his enabling to weekends was far easier than he thought it would be. And once Wilson had gained some distance from Julie, both physical and emotional, he became more like the Wilson who had become House's friend in the first place.

They'd finally relaxed in each other's company enough to have fun at work again, so House didn't hesitate to call Wilson in to ogle breasts on the thin guise of a consult. It was when they were discussing them afterward that House noticed the garish green tie, far more offensive than the gaudy yellow one had ever been, and knew he was right. He'd see less of Wilson for a while, as balancing a career, a wife, and a girlfriend was a time consuming endeavor, but at the end of it all he'd have Wilson back in his apartment. They'd share coffee and accoutrements in the morning, eleven o'clock news broadcasts at night, and in place of Xena there was even The L Word, with actual lesbians this time. Being forced to behold the hideousness that was the green tie for the day was a small price to pay for the return of his friend. House even found himself rethinking his earlier premise on Wilson's marriage: Wilson didn't really need to be married, he just needed to be stopped from shopping for himself.

Just because House didn't wear ties didn't mean he couldn't buy good ones with the best of 'em.

\--------

Getting divorced seemed to be an acquired skill, as Wilson did a much better job of it the third time around. The process didn't take as long, the alimony wasn't as steep, and Wilson even managed to hang on to his record collection this time without requiring House's aid in a late night rescue mission. He also moved into a place of his own, which House took as a good sign. Staying with House meant that Wilson was just waiting for his next wife to come along. Staying on his own, hopefully, meant something different.

They were shopping for Cuddy's birthday with an eye toward something grossly inappropriate and infinitely suggestive, something that could never have been done with married Wilson, when House spotted them. He left Wilson in the lingerie department with explicit instructions about animal prints and g-strings to have a closer look. They were fine silk, the kind that shifted hue in the light. The colors ran together when he touched them; ran to him, then away from him, mixing with themselves into something new, something unexpected. There was nothing boring or garish about them, just an understated elegance. When House saw he'd unknowingly echoed the advertising blurb displayed on the shelf he sighed in exasperation, but quickly bought two of them anyway.

He completely forgot about the ties until it was time to wrap Cuddy's gift several weeks later. Pulling them from their hiding place to study them again, he was struck by how much import such seemingly innocuous items could carry. He decided immediately against giving them to Wilson and put them back in the closet because would be easy for Wilson to get the wrong idea. The ties seemed to say things House wasn't sure either of them wanted to hear: things about subtle changes, about the importance of perspective, about permeable boundaries. Sometimes a cigar was just a cigar, but a tie wasn't always just a tie.

House made careful note where he put them, though. Christmas was still a few months away and there could very well be a subtle shift in his own perspective by then.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the House Slash labcoats, suits, and ties challenge. Many thanks to the community members who helped me research Wilson's ties.


End file.
